


To Love and Protect

by Datawolf39



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Akira loves Everyone, His name is Akira, I don't care that he has a new one, Multi, OT7, Sensored Ryuji, Why aren't the guys romanceable?, Yes that deserves a tag (I don't write cuss words), everyone loves akira
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-01
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2019-02-26 08:51:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13232295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Datawolf39/pseuds/Datawolf39
Summary: I was thinking about this for a while and wrote it up in about an hour. This is inspired by the fact that all combat members learn Protect at rank nine. I would have to care about someone a whole lot to just hop in front of them like that.





	To Love and Protect

For Ryuji, it is most definitely the moment that Akira awakens to his persona. Ryuji has always been an open-minded kind of guy. Despite the fact that everyone saw him as a juvenile delinquent, he's never been one to let society dictate what he should think of a person. So it's not like he has a problem with girls liking girls or boy liking boys. He personally, just had always liked girls, but seeing Akira embrace Arsene, was just something special, and in that moment, he fell in love.

For Ann, the moment is definitely when Akira listens to her problems, after she tries to push him away. She normally never feels comfortable with new people, because normally that all want something from her, but Akira just listens. 

“Are you really a bad person?” She asks. She's heard the rumors, everyone has, but somehow the boy in front of her is not what she's pictured.

“I'm bad to the bone,” he declares, with the an air of confidence.

She knows she likes him then, however, it isn't until they fight their first Shadows together that she realizes the deeper emotion of love has blossomed.

Akira isn't looking her way when she notices, but Ryuji is. His look says. I know. They both leave it at that.

For Yusuke, it is the moment that he himself awakens to his own persona. It is as though opening his eyes to the truth of Madarame's treachery, allows him to see everything around him. Akira, Joker, he later learns, is standing next to him. Giving him this moment of power, and then they are fighting alongside one another. There is no anger that he had stood in the way, and he harbors no malice that they have forced him to acknowledge what has been before his eyes for so long.

The next time that they travel to the Metaverse, Yusuke, newly codenamed Fox, watches Akira as he strides in. Ann and Ryuji, Panther and Skull, both place hands on his shoulder, as though they are aware of what he has realized. A look confirms it for him. He may not be the best at understanding others, but he understands this.

It's inevitable that Makoto joins them in the way they feel about Akira. There is simply something about him that attracts a variety of people. He is bright in a subtle way, and you have to get to know him to see his brilliance. 

For Makoto, it isn't a single instance, it is the fact that he listens to her in a way that no one else did. After a time it wasn't limited to him, her friends, and it still astounded her that she could call them that, began to listen too. However, there was something in the way that Akira looked at her when she spoke that clearly stated, I hear you, and, What you say matters.

She knows that she is not alone in these feelings when the other give her silent nods of understanding. 

When Futaba joins their ranks as Oracle, they are uncertain if she would feel as they do. She is a bit younger, and her way of thinking is quite different. Sometimes it was as though she sees Akira as an older brother.

For her, the moment happens outside the Metaverse, and suddenly something makes sense. She creates a separate chat that excludes Akira. 

Futaba-I just realized  
Ryuji- U too?  
Ann- Don't worry he has that affect on all of us  
Makoto- We were wondering if you would  
Yusuke- It is such an intricate thing, is it not. The emotion which he stirs in all of us.  
Futaba- Inari for once I agree with you

After that the second group chat received a lot of usage.

The moment that Haru knew was as she watched the smile appear on his face when he pulled the mask off of a shadow so that they could ambush it.

She would have been vaguely afraid of how quickly she felt love, except all her new teammates are looking at her with knowing gazes. She finds out about the separate chat that night.

Ann- Did you see the way he pulled the mask off that shadow, that twirl thing he did was so not necessary, but totally appreciated  
Futaba- Ikr it was like ballet but in the air  
Ryuji- I was so distracted I almost forgot I was in the main party  
Ann- And did you see that new persona he had  
Makoto- It was beautiful  
Yusuke- I painted him using that persona today from memory  
Yusuke- I took a picture  
Futaba- … wow Inari  
Ryuji- We all need copies of that ASAP

 

For Akira it has to be the moments that they awaken. The strength they show in pulling off their masks, and tapping into the power to fight and stand up for their justice. Or at least that's the moment where he understands that his connection to them is something outside of the ordinary. The true realization comes later. 

It happens time and time again. Some shadow capitalizes on a weakness or spams an instant death move, and one of his friends shield him from them with their own bodies. He hates it, hates that it is necessary. Sometimes Futaba is able to stop the attacks that would knock someone out, and he wishes he could do the same. Every time someone gets hurt to protect him, he feels self-hatred. Their sacrifice shows they care about him in a way few others cared about him. He's never felt so loved, and he knows that feeling comfort, and love, while they feel pain is a horrible thing.

When he comes home, after the beating, and being drugged, he feels broken. He's hurt more than he would every show, but somehow they all know. It goes unspoken, but sitting there with them, he begins to heal.

It's not long after where he is forced to turn himself in to protect them. He is almost happy to do it. After all the hits they have taken for him, he can now do the same thing for them. When he gets out he learns how all the people that he had bonded with helped him get released. He thanks all of them for their efforts, arranging to spend time with them all before he is forced to go home. The night he gets out though, they all stay with him. The Phantom Thieves are together again, and they can't bear to separate again just yet, even if only to go home. They all sleep over, crammed into the attic, and none of them complain when Akira wakes from nightmares, they just huddle around happy that they can protect him once again.


End file.
